raising awareness about the organization and the issues we are tackling.

Join: Remove barriers to educational opportunities for girls and women by partnering with organizations whose missions include enabling girls to go to school and providing vocational training for women.

• You can help us by sharing information about organizations that need our help with our grants committee.
• Build relationships with individuals and organizations that will help advance our mission.

Network: Do you know of an individual, business or organization that would be interested in supporting our work by making financial contributions? Share that information with us.

Know: Create awareness of global issues related to girls and women by increasing understanding of the violent and oppressive treatment of women across the globe.

▪                The first step, is to become aware of the abuses which needlessly claims one woman a minute. Our volunteers have read the book Half the Sky, and we’d recommend that you read it too.

▪                Stay up to date on current events. Last week, Secretary Clinton declared a Zero Tolerance Day on female genital mutilation. This may not seem important to the average college student, but if you read the facts, it may be enough to motivate you to become an ambassador for our organization.

▪                Leverage the collective wisdom and influence of sorority women by multiplying our reach to individuals, organizations, and campus umbrella groups who not only will help communicate our mission to their own networks but also provide financial support for our mission.

▪                Stand for something—March 8^th is International Women’s Day—do something to raise awareness on this day. How easy would red lipstick be? Learn about this movement at: http://youare.cn.com/flash.html

▪                Add your name to a cause. Change.org is one of the easiest ways to become involved. You can start a petition or join a cause you care about. Last March a petition that began on this site led to a change in South African law to make it illegal to perform “corrective rape,” which is defined as raping a lesbian in order to ‘turn’ her into a heterosexual. After 170,000 people joined this campaign online, the law was changed and this act is now considered a hate crime, punishable by law. Don’t sit there and think your name typed into the computer can’t change a girl’s life across the globe.

Establish a presence as a major contributor in uplifting the spirit of women worldwide through our visual identity, web presence, and social media activity. We share information on Twitter, Facebook and via this Blog. Lend us a hand by sharing what we share. And share your story so that we can share! Together our voices our stronger and we can leverage the collective wisdom and influence of our sorority sisters.

Obviously most of us don’t have the kind of capital that Bill Gates has to work with, but I feel that everyone could learn from his philosophy towards philanthropy. I admire that his approach is both compassionate and practical. He sees charitable endeavors as something well worth investing in, because ultimately everyone benefits from an overall better quality of life around the world. He sums it up himself pretty well: “[The] hybrid engine of self-interest and concern for others can serve a much wider circle of people than can be reached by self-interest or caring alone.” I feel like that’s a refreshingly balanced philosophy. Not only that, but as this Infographic shows, there are direct results that speak to just how powerful a well-informed and carefully invested philanthropist can be.

Read on to find out more about the powerful things happening at the hands of Bill Gates, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the legacy of philanthropy started by some of America’s most successful and most innovative figures. It’s nice to remember that success doesn’t always create greed — it can enable a powerful force of giving and problem-solving. 

In order to help provide girls of the Sacred Valley with an education, the community has provided a temporary low-rent building that the Sacred Valley Project converted into a dormitory so that the girls can attend school in the closest town. The dormitory provides more than just a place to sleep in order to attend school. The Sacred Valley Project, a New Jersey-based non-profit, is working to raise money to maintain the dormitory and provide the girls with school fees, empowerment education and vocational training. The hope is when these women return to their villages, they can become teachers, business owners, or even, go to college. 

The pilot dormitory opened at the start of the school year in March 2010, and was the first step towards improving access to secondary education for a few young women of the highlands. In the first year of operation, The Sacred Valley Project gained support from local and international community’s alike, and in the fall of 2010, signed a contract with the Indigenous Community of Ollanta to occupy a much more ample and inviting location. In this new space, The Sacred Valley Project now houses 12 students and provides supplementary and remedial educational support for all of the students. The Sacred Valley Project aspires to facilitate cultural pride and self respect in the students, enabling them to be indigenous leaders who generate positive growth and economic development through education.

The Circle of Sisterhood Foundation has granted $1,800 to The Sacred Valley Project, specifically to provide funding for a math tutor, because the young women are struggling with math. The grant funding will cover the tutor’s salary for the year, as well as provide books and supplemental materials for the tutor to utilize in working with the young women in the Sacred Valley.

Would you like to meet a few of the young women who will be impacted by this grant? Be sure to check out The Sacred Valley Project’s website, Facebook page or Twitter to follow their progress! Tell them the Circle of Sisterhood values the work they are doing to empower women in Peru.

University of Illinois hosts Potential New Member Orientation and screens a Circle of Sisterhood information video last fall.

This year, our Panhellenic community decided to support the Circle of Sisterhood as our annual recruitment philanthropy. Each year, the council chooses an organization to sponsor and Circle of Sisterhood seemed a perfect fit.

The cause is admirable, accessible, and relatable for all women, REGARDLESS OF AFFILIATION.

In years past, one dollar of each potential new member’s formal recruitment registration fee is donated to charity. Our formal recruitment numbers are between 1200-1400 women, which makes for a meaningful donation at the end of the process.

Although that would have been a donation the University of Illinois community would have been proud of, we wanted to take things one step further. The Panhellenic Council Executive Board planned a change drive competition between the groups participating in formal recruitment. The idea was to bring as much spare change as possible throughout the days of recruitment to see which group could raise to most money. The prize was a small gift card to a popular restaurant on campus. In order to get the future sorority women excited about the Circle of Sisterhood, the PHC executive board did a short presentation about the organization during our PNM Orientation session. We showed a Circle of Sisterhood video, and talked about what service and giving means in terms of fraternity/sorority life.

It was our hope that through the craziness of recruitment, one important pillar of Greek life would not go unnoticed…service. We wanted the women to see from the very beginning what amazing things can be accomplished when a motivated group of educated women work together for a common good.

The drive was a huge success, raising over $2,400 for the Circle of Sisterhood! Watching all of this happen from behind the scenes was incredible. I am so proud of our amazing Panhellenic community here at The University of Illinois. Since the drive was so well received, and there was a lot of excitement about Circle of Sisterhood in general, I hope to see this drive become a recruitment tradition in years to come.

This blog post was written by Bridget Leduc, a senior at Illinois University Urbana-Champaign studying Psychology. Ledue is a Delta Gamma. She served as the Panhellenic Council Vice President of Service in 2011. In that role she coordinated the Circle of Sisterhood fundraising efforts.

This year, the Panhellenic Association at the University of Missouri is sponsoring four teams of four women each to run in the Go! St. Louis Marathon Relay all while raising money and awareness for the Circle of Sisterhood. In April, we will run approximately seven miles each; through running we will be supporting women across the world that need our help. Until the race in April, we will be raising awareness and funds to support the Circle of Sisterhood.

Talking about the Circle of Sisterhood with college women is always interesting. As sorority women, they support many wonderful causes. Sometimes the women know quite a bit of information about the organization they are donating money or time to, and other times they support a cause because of a fun event that they get to participate in (oftentimes with fraternity men). With the Circle of Sisterhood, I have witnessed a much greater level of understanding and many more ‘Aha!’ moments about why it is important to support this cause.

As I have talked with Sorority women at Mizzou about the Circle of Sisterhood, the conversation always centers around privilege. For Sorority women to think about what their lives would be like if they weren’t in college is pretty difficult. I know for me, it is a tough concept to swallow. When the women think about other women around the world who are not nearly as fortunate as they are, they are moved to do something about it.

This feeling is what led the Panhellenic Association to try something a little different. The leaders put out a call to the entire Panhellenic community to see who would be interested in running a Marathon relay, all for a good cause. The sixteen of us who will be running in April may not be the fastest runners in the race, but we are there for the perfect reason. We are running for the girls—the girls and women around the world who are not able to experience some of the things that we take for granted every day.

This blog was written by Julie Drury, Senior Greek Life Coordinator at the University of Missouri. She resides in Jackson, Missouri and is a member of Sigma Kappa Sorority. You can follow updates about the relay on twitter @mizzougreeklife. We can’t wait to see pictures and hear about your impact! Best of luck! 

Our Circle – the Circle of Sisterhood – is committed to leveraging the collective wisdom and influence of sorority women to support entities around the world that remove educational barriers for girls and women, uplifting them from poverty and oppression.

Another Circle – the Circle of Women – is a non-profit organization which supports the self-sufficiency of indigenous Mixteca women in Oaxaca, Mexico by realizing social justice for women through self-reliance, raising consciousness of individual talents and skills, and enhancing cross-cultural relations.

Where do these two Circles intersect?  They intersect where our values are aligned – where women are encouraged, barriers to education removed, and poverty confronted.  We intersect where women help other women – with a Circle of Sisterhood grant to the Circle of Women.

The Grant

This Circle of Sisterhood grant will support a program aimed at helping the indigenous Mixteca women in Oaxaca, Mexico, to become self-sufficient and empower them to build healthy and viable communities. A majority of the “Circle of Women” are coffee growers from the Mixtec region of Oaxaca, Mexico or come from coffee growing families.   Seven out of ten adult women are illiterate.  Illiteracy and gender inequality are the primary causes of economic and educational disadvantage.

The Circle of Women started a literacy program when women could not develop their business without learning to read and write. “Reading with all the Senses” is a bilingual literacy program based on drawing and oral expression. The initial group of thirty-six Mixtec women became, in two years, twenty-seven bilingual women. Participation in the program showed an increase in confidence and willingness to speak in front groups and take part in activities. The project is now being used with young girls and women in neighboring villages. The graduates have formed a book club which meets on a regular basis to keep up their skills.

The Circle of Sisterhood is providing funding for one new teacher, program supplies, and all needed teacher travel in this literacy program for one year.

The Diagram

Remember, a Venn Diagram is a visual representation of the relationship of information within two circles, and the two circles intersect where the relationship is maximized and all the values between the two circles are aligned.

The Circle of Women and the Circle of Sisterhood intersect at coffee.  We intersect at reading, and book clubs, and the empowering influence of education.  We intersect at women helping women.  Whenever you drink coffee, whenever you read, think about the intersection of our Circles and even if the flashback to elementary school math makes you cringe, let the relationship between our Circles make you smile.

Beth Searcy

Beth Searcy is a volunteer for the Circle of Sisterhood, primarily in the Grants Division. She is the International President of Delta Gamma Fraternity and Assistant Dean of Academic Services and Strategic Initiatives at the University of Mary Washington. She resides in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where she drinks coffee, reads, and checks her kids’ math homework frequently.   

I believe we can figure out a social solution to repairing the disparity in education for girls in the developing world.

We’re admittedly a privileged bunch. The women in the Circle of Sisterhood are employed and paid wages within the first world, have the freedom to vote and engage civically, and have financial resources that place us in the top 4% of the global female income earners of all time. The women who serve with me are educated, empowered, globally connected professionals who come from a number of colleges and universities from coast to coast. We are connecting the problem of educational disparity with young women who, like us, benefit from the education of our mothers, sisters, and friends.

It used to bother me that women of privilege may be seen as patronizing. Sorority women? Who seemingly care about coffee clatches, Founders Day teas, Greek week skits, and homecoming tailgates, who now also care about educational opportunities for women in Asia, Africa, and South America?

I used to wonder if people would take our story seriously, a true story of hope. I don’t anymore.

Social activity is the primary method women use to get things done. We gather together around a problem. We socialize as we serve. Women connect problems with problem solvers, hope with the hopeful. I believe we do that because we understand a basic human need to stand hand in hand and walk in the same direction together.

It’s easy to step up and contribute your time, talent, or treasure to the work of the Circle of Sisterhood. If you are on a campus, as a student or a professional, you can Connect the mission of COS and share the book “Half the Sky” with students, colleagues, or friends. Hosting a book club in your office, or a brown bag conversation with your NPHC and Panhellenic executive boards is a great first step.

If you are focused on an outlet for monetary giving, gather your friends for an activity you would do anyway (a dinner, night out, or movie) and invite them to your home for dinner and a movie instead. They can donate the funds they would have spent on a night out to the Circle. Hosting a “Circle of Sisterhood Night In” is one quick and easy way to socialize with friends and support women worldwide.

My membership in Delta Gamma is a calling, and that calling matches the call to action in a multitude of sororities represented within the Circle of Sisterhood. The clean, deceptively simple expectation to “Do Good” is a tall order, and I’m lucky enough to have that calling enhanced by my professional relationship with Tri Sigma, an organization who shares DG’s primary value of hope.I used to wonder how sororities could find the capacity to respond to global issues, and I’ve seen that question answered by the actions of women from across the country. The women in the Circle of Sisterhood, and our supporters and friends understand that when you walk a girl into a classroom, and equip her with the opportunity to learn, you walk her away from a rice field, or a silk mill, or a sweatshop, or a brothel. You give her hope.

January comes each year and millions around the world resolve to eat less, clean more, work more efficiently, quit smoking, etc. But, what if we could help you resolve to make a true difference in the world?

Founder of the Circle of Sisterhood Foundation, Ginny Carroll, has a few recommended resolutions that you can put on your list. They are totally manageable and can make a difference to empower women & girls around the world. Are you up for the challenge?

1. At the end of each day, put any loose change in a jar. At mid-year and year’s end, make a donation to the Circle of Sisterhood. Challenge a friend to do the same.
2. Resolve to view things differently. Look at things through a different lens: the news, a magazine article, a blog post or a discussion with a friend. Issues affecting women worldwide are displayed everywhere. Pay attention to them.
3. Watch the PBS documentary on Half the Sky, scheduled to be released in 2012. Better yet, invite over friends and reflect on the movie. Discuss what you can do, then do it.
4. Commit to a monthly donation. Arrange it through a Network for Good on a credit card or through your personal bank’s automatic payment system. A monthly donation of $10 or $25 is often easier than a large donation at the end of the year.
5. Ask everyone in your family to give you $20 which equates to a school uniform, or school lunch for a year, or one year’s tuition for a girl in the developing world.
6. Set up a Crowdrise account and ask everyone you have an e-mail address for to give $10.

Happy New Year from the Circle of Sisterhood Foundation to you! 

Do you ever think of the plumber who lives across the street? How about your mailman? Your hairdresser? Yourself?

WordNet defines “philanthropist” as someone who makes charitable donations intended to increase human well-being. The American Heritage Dictionary has a similar definition: The effort or inclination to increase the well-being of humankind, as by charitable aid or donations. Note: Neither definition describes how much one has to give to be considered a philanthropist. My favorite description is “the love of humankind in general.”

Anyone can be a philanthropist. It simply means you give to help others, primarily because it is the right thing to do.  You give because you care, not because you expect something back in return other than the satisfaction of knowing you are doing the right thing.

The Circle of Sisterhood Foundation is grateful to all of the philanthropists (you are more than just a donor!) that have made a choice to help girls and women get an education and gain an opportunity to escape a life of poverty and oppression.  Some give a lot. Some give a little.  The amount is not as important as that they simply give.  And Circle of Sisterhood philanthropists give in a wide variety of ways.

Take for example our own leader, Ginny Carroll’s recent 50 for 50 campaign in which she asked her friends to give $50 in honor of her 50th birthday.  In just a matter of days, Ginny raised $3,075 from her friends and family. Each one of these donors is a philanthropist. They gave because she asked.  And they gave because they cared.

Similarly, friends responded when Sue Kraft Fussell conducted a Virtual Marathon for her own milestone birthday. Her generous friends donated money…and she never even ran a step!  Each person gave at a level that was meaningful to her and suddenly, the Circle of Sisterhood Foundation was the beneficiary of $3,865.

Hilary Cessna’s has launched her own philanthropic journey on Crowdrise. She shares what motivates her to not only give but to also ask for others to join her in her effort to raise $1,000.  She states:

“It is now our turn to rise up and give a voice to the voiceless. There is so much devastation happening in the world to women and girls. Regardless of where were born, where we went to college or what organization we affiliated with, we are one sisterhood. A sisterhood of women. It is now our turn to stand as one and unite for the rights of women and girls everywhere.”

Now, that is a wonderful philanthropic spirit!

Our collegiate sisters are learning about giving every day on our college campuses.  These women are recognizing the incredible feeling of what giving provides. Take just a few examples:  there is a Dance Marathon at UC San Diego, Miami University’s Panhellenic trip to see Wicked, the Circle of Sisterhood week of awareness activities at the University of Southern Florida.  Every week there are new posts on the Circle of Sisterhood Foundation’s Facebook page of clever fundraisers that allow students to become philanthropists.

We have been blessed in this country to have the right to work, get an education, vote, travel by ourselves, drive, select a spouse, make decisions about our own bodies and so much more. We also know that many women around the world are not afforded these same rights.  We can each become a philanthropist and help make change.   Every gift, regardless of size, makes a difference.  When we pool our resources and provide grants to schools or nongovernmental organizations, we are opening doors for women to have a chance.  We are giving to help the well-being of others.  That’s what it means to be a philanthropist.  That’s what happens when you choose to donate to the Circle of Sisterhood Foundation.

As we close 2011 this week, I invite you to become a philanthropist yourself.  Make a donation to the Circle of Sisterhood because of your love for humankind.  I guarantee you will feel proud of what you have achieved.  And somewhere out there, a young girl will thank you.

Learn how you can support the Circle of Sisterhood at www.circleofsisterhood.org/donate.

Bethany is inspired by the Circle of Sisterhood in order to teach her young niece about philanthropy and Greek letter organizations--a philanthropist in the making!

This post was written by Bethany Deines,  Director of Annual Gifts at Children’s Medical Center in Dayton, Ohio. Deines is a volunteer for the Circle of Sisterhood Foundation and a member of Sigma Sigma Sigma National Sorority.

Innova will work with you to create your design and produce your items in time for your philanthropic efforts. All orders:

• Have a 10% royalty, which comes directly to the Circle of Sisterhood Foundation to help us accomplish our mission.
• Can be co-branded Circle of Sisterhood with a school, chapter and/or organization.
• Receive design work at no charge.

Innova offers a wide variety of brands and merchandise to meet your needs, whatever they may be. If you’d like to place an order, please contact Ellen Chesnut, Innova staff, at ellen.chesnut@sigler.edu.

Thank you to Innova for helping us support organizations around the world that remove educational barriers for girls and women to uplift them from poverty and oppression.